The evolution of wireless security in 802.11 networks: WEP, WPA and 802.11 standards

This paper describes the evolution of wireless security in 802.11 networks. The paper discusses the security weakness of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and provides with the interim and ultimate solutions: Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and 802.11i standards. The paper begins with an introduction of WEP's well-known vulnerability, followed by the major requirements for securing wireless LANs. The paper then covers various responses from vendors, IEEE and the Wi-Fi Alliances. The Wi-Fi Alliances extracts the key features from 802.11i to establish WPA to satisfy the immediate needs for the wireless industry. Meanwhile, IEEE 802.11 Task Group 'I' is working on the 802.11i standard to provide the ultimate robust security for the wireless infrastructure. A high level of key features used by WPA and 802.11i such as 801.X EAP based authentication TKIP encryption protocol AES encryption protocol are explained. Summaries and potential issues of WPA and 802.11i are mentioned as well.